A first time experience

More spreadsheets

2009-04-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.microsoft.com/Education/LessonPlans.mspx
Wow! Some already pre-made lesson plans to help enhance student learning through technology!

Spreadsheets

2009-04-07T23:38:00.000-07:00

I chose to evaluate the Nutrition for Kids...and Astronauts project about how Ms. Peggy Hash and Ms. Connie Fugate used presentation software in their classroom. This was found on the Building Bridges with technology website at http://edtech.boisestate.edu/elearn/newbridges/tslessons.htm.
I am interested in teaching special education, and although there are a couple adaptions I would make, I think this kind of lesson could still be implemented. Students in the special education classroom will have a wide variety of skills, as well as different limitations. Especially for a collaborative project such as this, you could have students use the skills they currently posses, and possibly develop new ones. I think the nutrition subject would be great because it would be prevalent to the students lives, and wouldn't be too abstract of a subject. If the special education classroom combined with another classroom, as the second and fifth grade classes did, despite deficits in knowledge, and skills, there is greater chance for a complete, informative presentation. Some of the adaptations I could foresee are students who may not have computer skills, may be able to color pictures of certain kinds of food, which could then be scanned and put into the power point. It may also be possible to have students with limited motor ability use a speech to speech synthesizer to input information. In the case of the food guide pyramid, students could use a real model of one with Velcro strips on it to place their own 'food' items cut out from magazines or other sources in their appropriate group. Again, you would take pictures of this model to put into the power point later. All of these ways (and I'm sure there are others too) would be a great way to still get the special education students involved and enable them to have an impact in a group project.

Another Embedded video

2009-03-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

Guess what? It's not from Youtube!

Math Trick For Your Fingers - Easy Multiplication - Watch more

Video embedded from site other than youtube

2009-03-30T12:30:00.001-07:00

Video post from Teachertube.com

2009-03-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

Video

2009-03-18T12:52:00.001-07:00

Kindergarten ABC's

2009-03-04T11:53:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Kindergarten ABC's

View more presentations from lessway.

As I hope to teach Kindergarten in the future, I found this to be a great presentation. It is age appropriate and shows students the visual step-by-step process for how a plant grows. This would be used during a science lesson or even portray cause and effect relationships. I really liked how the presentation showed each process from a seed to a plant, slowly and in sequential order. It is very simply portrayed and seems it would be easy for younger students to follow.

Non Verbal Communication.Ppt%

2009-03-02T12:40:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Non Verbal Communication.Ppt%

View more presentations from V.Bharathan. (tags: personality development)

Jigsaw Response

2009-02-21T15:16:00.000-08:00

In reading about the Jigsaw method as a collaborative learning model, I foresee many benefits. For instance, if your classroom only had five computers, the Jigsaw method allows for the class to be broken up into separate groups. In this case, you would want to make sure that one person from each group you created (ideally five to match the number of computers) would be able to use a computer at time. The other members in the group could be finding research in other sources such as textbooks, or collaborating with other group members.
Some other potential advantages to using the Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Activity could be the benefit students gain from working together as a group. It not only encourages teamwork but can increase motivation by breaking down areas of study into manageable chunks. This way, students won't feel as overwhelmed about having to research a huge topic. For a history project specifically, the research groups would allow students to understand how their specific portion fits in with other events that happened during that time. The collaboration that students do with members from another group that researched their same topic is a great strategy. This helps those students who have deficits in researching or reading skills collect the extra information that they need. Each group member will bring a different idea of what they thought was important to note in the research they found, and so you end up with a more thorough report.
The only disadvantages I foresee after reading the information is dissension among group members. There is always the possibility that you match up a group that does not end up working together. However you may try to motivate your students, there may still be one or two in your class who do not do as much work as their other group members. Often, the group pressure they receive will be enough for them to step up, but not always. To solve this problem, I would have each group member rate their fellow participants so that they can be graded individually and the overall group grade will not be affected by a lazy member.
Group projects are often viewed in a negative way, but the Jigsaw model sounds like a attractive exception. I look forward to implementing this in my future classroom.

Google for Educators

2009-02-19T00:33:00.001-08:00

In exploring the Google for Educators Website, as a future Elementary Education teacher, I believe I would be most likely to use the following resources for these reasons:

Picasa would be a fun Google product for Kindergarten students to use, as this is one of my first preferences in grade levels to teach. This site would encourage excitement and companionship among students as well as allowing them to come up with their own collages/stories/presentations about particular pictures. These would be great to use after a field trip to help install what the students learned. Students could also showcase their own photographs using this Doc which could aid in organization skills, File management, and other useful computer use skills.

Google Earth as part of the GeoEducation would be an amazing resource for making Elementary school history a lot more viable and significant. Students can search for pictures from a particular event and connect them to the places they took place in. Google Earth, or maps for that matter could also be used to assist in math lessons, with showing the different properties of tsunamis, aid in making Literature more exciting with Google Lit trips, etcetera. The GeoEducation product from google would be a great interactive resource.

Another product I would use from Google is iGoogle. I think this would be a great way to help kids stay on top of their class work and activities that were going on. Not only that, but this would be a great asset for parents who want to stay up-to-date about what's going on in the classroom. In addition, for the younger kids, having one site for them to visit instead of causing them to search multiple different sites for information may cut down the risks of unsafe Internet practices. It would also be a lot handier for parents than having to try and get a hold of the school or trying to remember information last minute. With iGoogle parents and students can access classroom information wherever there Internet is available.

Google Docs are a new discovery to me, but I am finding that they could be used as a great learning resource in the classroom. Our world is growing more technology based and so if students get early exposure, I believe they are probably going to be more prepared for the world they are going into. Also, I believe Google Docs is just one more way they can express their knowledge. Each and every student will learn in a different way, and Google Docs creates multiple means of representation and allows students to communicate in multiple different ways with multiple different people. Most of the Google products I looked at seemed to provide a more 'hands on' approach to learning and definitely provides fast ways of distributing and organizing information. I hope to be able to learn more about these Docs and ways to implement them into my classroom instruction.

One Assistive Technology I would use in my classroom

2009-01-31T22:04:00.000-08:00

As an Elementary/Special Education major, I hope that I will be able to better assist students with special needs in the general classroom. I think that inclusion for such students is beneficial both for them, and for the other students as well. For this reason, if I was to choose a particular assistive technology to use in my classroom, it would be what is called the 'MotivAider' made by Behavioral Dynamics Inc. I believe this piece of technology would be particularly helpful because it is personal, and subtle and so wouldn't draw undo attention to the student with the disability. The MotivAider is particularly geared towards students who have trouble focusing such as those with ADD or ADHD. With the prevalence of this diagnosis increasing, I think it is as important as ever to provide resources to assist these students in the classroom. The MotivAider is a perfect way to do this because the student keeps the small device on their person and it vibrates every couple of minutes. All that is required is that the student with the disability is prepped before hand to associate the vibration with a motivational phrase such as 'stick with it, you're doing well', or another phrase the child chooses. The ultimate goal is to provide a reminder to help the student stay on task without me as a teacher having to constantly nag, both drawing negative attention to the student, and disrupting classroom discussions. This adaptive technology is as easy to carry as an iPod and helps students feel a sense of empowerment in being able to monitor their own behavior. I believe the MotivAider would be an excellent piece of adaptive technology to add to any classroom with students who have trouble paying attention.

2009-01-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

3 ways you could use a blog as a form of communication in the classroom
1) Posting homework/assignments for students who were absent or who have hungry dogs...
2) Informing parents of school activities such as parent-teacher night or that school carnival coming up
3) Summarizing current topics being discussed in the classroom so parents can be more involved or students can review concepts